As
migration grinds to a halt and the temperatures start to rise, the prospect of
finding new year birds also slows down:
my year needs list according to eBird was pretty much limited to hitting
Bentsen pre-dawn for the Elf Owl I missed during my Hidalgo County Birdathon,
or the feral parrots at Oliveira Park in Brownsville, which requires one to be
there a little before sunset. Neither of
those options really appealed to me, so I finally decided to do a road-birding
route that would include some coastal areas, so I chose Boca Chica Boulevard,
which is a route that starts past the Border Patrol checkpoint on SR4, and
includes as many of the little side roads that you can explore all the way down
to the beach (and even to the mouth of the Rio Grande if the beach is drivable)!
Much
of the habitat along this road is coastal savannah and some thornscrub; the
first stop is across the way from the famous Brownsville Dump, so you can at
least add Turkey Vultures and Laughing Gulls here, but try as I might, I couldn’t
find the Aplomado Falcon nesting platform that used to be there, so it may have
been either destroyed or removed. But
that early the Common Nighthawks were calling, and picked up the normal open
country birds: Eastern Meadowlarks were
in high numbers, as were Mockingbirds, Bobwhites, Mourning Doves, and even
Willets defending their territories (and if they ever split the Willets, only
the Eastern breeds here, so that makes it easy)! The lack of a shoulder precludes regular
half-mile stops, but where you can pull over, and where there’s good
patches of thornscrub, Olive Sparrows, White-eyed Vireos, and Cardinals also
went “over the top”. In the open areas
both Cassin’s and Botteri’s Sparrows were singing (plus a single Lark Sparrow),
and at one stop I had a singing Blue Grosbeak.
Many Black-bellied Whistling Ducks were flying around, but I was pleased
as punch to see a pair of Fulvous Whistling Ducks fly over the road!
Typical habitat along the Boca Chica Route
There
are a few roads that are worth exploring; Gavito Ranch Road is one I don’t
usually explore, but I have gone down it while guiding (as it’s one of
the few spots where you can get off the main highway and into the refuge
habitat), but this time I didn’t get far as the road was mired in mud! But it was good for Yellow-billed Cuckoo,
White-tipped Dove, and Long-billed Thrashers.
(While I didn’t pick it up this time, during last year’s RGV Bird
Festival we picked up a Groove-billed Ani along here, much to the delight of
our group!)
Nope - not this time!
The
next good road to explore is Palmito Hill Road, as it’s a nice, wide dirt road
that goes through great coastal savannah habitat and some thornscrub. While it’s great for the sparrows, I was
shocked (given the great cactus patches) that not one Cactus Wren showed up! (Had lots of Bewick’s, though, along with
Curve-billed Thrashers…) Harris’ and
White-tailed Hawks can be seen here, but this day a pretty Crested Caracara
landed out in the field right next to the car!
Making the “square” added more woodland things like Brown-crested
Flycatchers and Verdins, plus a pair of Black-crested Titmice going into their
nest hole in a utility pole! The road
basically ends at a “residential” area where you need to turn around, but as I
headed back out, I couldn’t believe my ears:
a Yellow-green Vireo was singing!!
I hopped out to at least get a recording, and I did see the little
guy dart across the road at one point (the wind was picking up, so although it
sounded like he was right there, I couldn’t spot him to save my
life)! Needless to say he went out on
the Rare Bird Alert, and by the time the day was over two of my friends had
headed over and bagged him for their own year lists – what a blessing (and I
had no hope of nabbing any year birds that day)!
Habitat along the start of Palmito Hill Road
Crested Caracara
South side of Palmito Hill Road
Black-crested Titmouse
Everything
after that was gravy; before heading down Quicksilver I checked the succulent
plants for the restricted Xami Hairstreak, and got a Western Pygmy Blue
instead! Heading on down Quicksilver to
the Rio Grande only added a flyover Caspian Tern, and a few stops closer to the
flats added some herons, a few Horned Larks, and a skimming Black Skimmer! This was also my first look at the giant
Space-X complex, which hadn’t been built since the last time I was down there;
one of my stops was just before the complex, where I first heard, and then found
a Wilson’s Plover! I had checked the
tide tables, and the good news was that the tide would be going out by the time
I got to the beach, but the bad news was that the wind was so bad and the waves
so high that the beach was basically undrivable (except for those brave souls
who wanted to risk running over something and ruining their tires…), so I just
took a quick look down the beach both ways and over the Gulf, only adding Brown
Pelicans and more Laughing Gulls to the list.
Continuing on...
Another (closed) road into the NWR
Western Pygmy Blue
Odd mud tower made by some insect
Black Skimmer Skimming
Wilson's Plover
Boca Chica Beach
Called
it quits after that with a modest 53 species for the morning, but that vireo
made the whole trip worthwhile! Bird
list:
Black-bellied
Whistling-Duck
Fulvous
Whistling-DuckNorthern Bobwhite
Common Ground-Dove
White-tipped Dove
Mourning Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Common Nighthawk
Wilson's Plover
Willet
Laughing Gull
Caspian Tern
Black Skimmer
Brown Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Tricolored Heron
Reddish Egret
Turkey Vulture
Harris's Hawk
White-tailed Hawk
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
Brown-crested Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Couch's Kingbird
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Yellow-green Vireo
Horned Lark
Black-crested Titmouse
Verdin
Carolina Wren
Bewick's Wren
Curve-billed Thrasher
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Botteri's Sparrow
Cassin's Sparrow
Olive Sparrow
Lark Sparrow
Eastern Meadowlark
Hooded Oriole
Red-winged Blackbird
Bronzed Cowbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Northern Cardinal
Blue Grosbeak
